a lot of new babies were dying. i did not think it's like them babies to deck. people and power investigate, exposes, and questions. they use them to be of our around the globe on al jazeera. ah, could resend them. it gets worse, in se asia, with the numbers of deaths and infections soaring across many countries. ah, no, malcolm, i'm peter w, watching alex is here alive from headquarters here in the also coming up. central china, west flooding in recent years, provokes anger and scrutiny about the government's failure to prepare for the disaster. the rain has used, but millions of people struggling to deals with

a devastating flooding. just what many cities? french presidents and manual macro calls and urgent national security meeting officer reports he may have been targeted by israeli spyware. thousands of people gather in ethiopia capital to show their support for government troops fighting in to grow. we begin in se asia where the highly contagious delta variance of cobit 19 is fueling infections across the region. indonesia is now the epicenter. it's reported more than $1400.00 deaths the highest since the pandemic began. $35000.00 new infections have been detected, but testing rates are low and the true figures could be much higher. the world health organization has as the government to introduce a strict to lockdown, is jessica washington. from jakarta,

indonesia has now passed more than $3000000.00 cases in total. what we have seen on the positive side is that the government has been able to ramp up testing, and they were able to test 200000 individuals in one day, which is a market improvement. however, still way of the target of trying to test 400000 people each day. and you can imagine that in a country like indonesia, there are 4 people who would struggle when there is a strict lockdown and many all doing it tough, particularly across your college. or a java and many parts of the country, but epidemiologist say that the government must strongly because the situation is continuing to worsen. intensive care units in hospitals, but only in chicago, not only in java, but across the country are stretched and we're seeing concerning signs of health care system across the country and more regional provinces, including a west hub for with the, with the health care resources are certainly not what we have here in jakarta, and the numbers that you mentioned earlier us concerning,

as they found in the fact that into these are now is asia covert epi center. they don't represent the reality on the ground because of low testing rates. some local data agencies using data from cities from provincial governments, say that the actual just told is likely to be greater than one. the government's numbers suggests in thailand, there's been another reco day of new infections. more than 13600 people have tested positive in the past day, but there aren't enough vaccines. the nation's vaccine institute has apologize for not buying enough jobs and is now promising to join the global kofax vaccine sharing scheme. tony chang, now from bangkok we saw a government ministry coming out over night saying that we're asking celebrities not to criticize the government on social media. he said that their voice is amplified on platforms like twitter and facebook. and they should be very aware of

what the public, the information, the public is receiving impact the thai government when to introduced new anti cove . it measures a couple of weeks ago, i slipped in a bill a gave a new power to limit or so called miss information. and the wording is actually any information which might cause the public to panic regardless of we're actually true or false. and we've seen them acting on that today. overnight. a young tie wrapper, criticize the government on social media. today, she's being called into the police. but i think it illustrates how sensitive the government is about its coven response. there is a growing criticism here of the government of the vaccination problem program about about the number of infections we're seeing, which have risen very quickly in the last couple of months. we even so protested back on the st. last. we can now at the moment, people are very concerned about going out in public, although than all being banned. during the daytime, there is

a strict curfew at night. most people are trying to stay at home as much as possible at this time last year. tyler was doing remarkably well. daily infections were in double digits for the whole of 2020, the whole total number of code fatalities was just 61. while now. we've blown well past those figures where we saw anti government protests on the street last year. i think the government was rather saved by the fact that it had responded or was seen to respond very well to the pandemic this year. if those protest thought again, i think the government is very nervous indeed. and south korea has reported a record 1800 new coban, 1900 cases in one day, the contagious delta of air in feeling the surge there. the latest numbers include 270 sailors who have flown home from anti piracy mission authorities and are considering expanding restrictions and so, and its neighboring regions in neighboring japan, tokyo, the host city of an lympics like no other is seeing its highest number of

infections in 6 months to more athletes of the limping village of tested positive, they're among 12 cases linked to the games and einst on thursday, bringing the total to 87. so q itself is seeing its highest number of cases in 6 months. the city remains under a state of emergency with competitors facing unprecedented restrictions on their movements. and richardson has been taking a look at why these olympics are still going ahead. athletes will have to get used to the sound of their own efforts in tokyo. these olympic have already cost the host nation, at least $15000000000.00, much of the money spent on venue that fans and now bound from attending due to rise in cases of covey. 19, the cost is being shouldered for the great part by the people and not really by the government. and so people are really getting sick and tired of having to make so much sacrifice. so you really do have, you know, very well divided society and maybe i honestly,

united in opposition. i guess the olympics this is about as close to the sporting action as tokyo residents will get in a city where kofi 19 infection levels hitting heights. not seen since january. then anthem lee, and i just want to hear it. i don't know what to say considering how much the virus is spread. athletes have been training so hard for this. i would feel sorry for them if it doesn't happen. mother. so i wouldn't who wanted to take the risk of watching it in the stadium. it's enough for me to see the games on tv. while last ticket revenue is set to cost the hosts, hundreds of millions of dollars. a made for tv events does make financial sense for the international olympic committee. the i see makes approximately 75 percent of its income from selling broadcast rights to the games and around full $1000000000.00 could have been lost if the olympics had been cancelled and the legal, small print will tell you, it was always the see here,

the final say as to whether or not these olympics went ahead, organizes will be hoping the public mood shifts in their favor. once the games are up and running, we'll have like a very, a negative agenda across like different media outlets before the games. and as soon as the games are new, how like, fair me. like the mind everyone like congress tends to be like more positive and focus more on the stories that are taking place within stages. voices in support of the games can be found with the host. now, banking on sporting dramas rather than medical was rubbing the headlines in the days ahead. and richardson al jazeera tokyo. well, the threats of infection is not the only problem clouding the games. just 24 hours before the opening ceremony its director was sacked after organizes, were made aware of a holocaust joke. he made a comedy show in 1998 hungary and prosecutors of launched an investigation into

allegations of spying using is ready, spyware. the french president is also called an urgent national security meeting to discuss the pegasus scandal. it follows reports that emanuel mccomb and several government ministers were targeted for phone hacking by an unidentified moroccan security service. morocco has denied those reports. natasha bucklin up from paris since these obligations emerged on tuesday. we have heard extensively from the lease, from the french prime minister all cast dex. he will say, of course his allegations are something that cannot be tolerated. and that fool investigations are being launched into these allegations to see whether or not they are verified. so it's in that context that the french president is holding this meeting with the cabinet to discuss, of course, these allegations, the main one being that the french president actually had one of his mobile phone

selected as a possible target by american intelligence services. a target that could be put on to the survey and not, not only the french president phone, but also his former prime minister at wal felipe, and more than a 1000 ministers, a very serious allegations. indeed, as you can imagine, we can imagine that the french president is talking about these is talking about how to put in pop stronger security as well. we know that a more moroccan authorities have denied these allegations they did. so 2 days ago they continued to do so, but it is not the 1st time that a french president has been put apparently on the survey. and there were allegations against the us a few years ago of putting former us a former french presence on this event. india has denied its among the government kline savannah, so the company behind the program, but a leak database of 50000 telephone numbers including hundreds belonging to its citizens. the most prominent is the opposition politician roha gandhi. his number

was targeted during parliamentary elections in 20182019 others include dozens of journalists, an election commission, official business men, diplomats, and even to ministers in the remote government. a form, a supreme court staff who had accused the chief justice of india of abuse was also targeted. the justice is now member of parliament with the ruling party list further on him. now, more from new delhi where the press club of india were journalists holding a protest following reports to the funds of more than 300 indians, including journalists, what hacked using the israeli made and pegasus where now the project, the director of the government. because pegasus is classified as a military grade cyber weapon, and it's found to say they only sell the technology to better governments for the sole purpose of saving lives and prevention criminals and terror acts. but the list of people in india who follows allegedly hack include not just journalists,

but major opposition figures a former election commissioner, a top political strategist, business people include ministers and the current government, including the information minister. now the founders of the, in the news website wire are among the more than 40 indian journalist who's fun allegedly hacked was also one of the 17 media organizations around the world. we conducted the investigation into how pegasus by way was being used in various countries. this is much one of the founders had to say either we do the privacy issue and the number not to worry about doing that in front of the problem that they want to get to the bottom of it. now the government and that there is no evidence not support us, nothing allegations and that the reports are an attempt to undermine the monsoon session of india's parliament,

which began on monday. but the country main opposition political party of the congress and many others. calling for an independent investigation into the report, given just how serious these allegations list for on reporting the let's told now to sit us read a raj. i'm. he's the funding editor of the indian digital news portal. the wire. the wire is one of the media organizations that collaborated globally on the pegasus investigations. he joins us on skype from new delhi sid us, but other john, are we saying that this is the water gates movement for mr. moody? that's what is being called by some people in your country. well, it's quite close to that sort of a moment. might do that all kinds of problems with making comparisons of that kind historically and graphically. but the fact is that we have clinching evidence in the formal forensics that we conducted on the phones of an important opposition. political advisor,

gentlemen called push on to sure who was actively involved in advising a major opposition party in a recently conducted election. adams, who form tested positive for forensic this means that during the course of the election, and of course, the run up to the election, that is from evidence that his phone was targeted with a pegasus. with the fact that the spyware indicates a ground on the we have his numbers on our list. but we couldn't conduct forensics because he doesn't have those particular instruments that he was using at the time . so it will always remain in a sense, a semi because a lot of numbers on the list actually turn up to have perfection. but yeah, given that this is an attempt to use illegal means to get one up on your political opponents. and that's really what, what gets all about. ok, i would say that this comes pretty close. not wishing to put paper chain or

evidence chain words into your mouth. but i understand point number one, your phone was hacked. that's not an allegation, or a suspicion that's an established forensic fact. what kind of information do you think the people that did the hacking might have got an also a you saying unequivocally in your mind, that the buying in of the spyware by the indian government brackets allegedly was signed off on the highest levels in government. there is no doubt in my mind that the agency which has been targeting me or other journalists or profound control or the politician i mentioned is that a new agency and we have and that so group, it sounds like on the record thing that they only sell to governments, so that agency is, is it all in 100 percent government agency. and given that,

given the, you know, essentially illegal nature of this technology because they get a lot of the crime and using packets of involved in it would have to be signed off at the high levels and kept under wraps. that it's, it's, this is the reason why the government cannot bring itself to admit that it uses pegasus. it can bring itself to issue a denial either involvement because that would amount to committing contempt. so you have this funny situation where the government will not say yes or no. when asked, are you using pegasus? but when you have evidence, evidence numbers in the form. busy of forensics form and you look at the range of targets a top do we have to think of any other government anywhere in the world which would be showing this kind of interest in such a range of in didn't subject. there is clearly pardon me from trusting you, that there is clearly a desire for distance in israel, on the part of the israeli leadership or the former israeli leadership. i'm

thinking about benjamin netanyahu here because there is on paper, in theory, a very good relationship. but it puts your country in the company of how can i put it, potentially problematic relationships. it puts india in the same baskets of countries when it comes to a desire to observe perceived threats or people that may be the government doesn't like i'm thinking about countries like the u. a. i'm thinking about bahrain, i'm thinking about as a by john, i'm thinking about morocco allegedly to do with the french. so what does this tell us about the state of democracy in india? i think the kind of company that india is keeping right now in terms of what the bankers project has exposed and the number of journalist, for example, the big targeted we're one of the highest of the in the world of the douglas is, are. 2 you know, to my mind is emblematic of the different, you know, the particular state of, of democracy and freedom of the rest of the century. and you know,

i think that this is the, i'm sorry about this is you know, as proof of the fact that democracy and press 3 to present this trip i really don't mind. i know exactly what it feels like. i could tell you stories about husky in a german shepherd, but i won't because having a serious conversation. last question. why is it that mr. moody will not put out a categorical denial of having commissioned pegasus to work for them? because what's interesting about this, and this is something that we, everyone has just picked up on over the past 24 hours. the sales process only goes as far as and as so, but anyway, so selling what they provide to a customer in this debate, allegedly mr. moody, the indian government has to be sanctioned and green lit by the israeli government . quite right. and so the spyware is considered military grade technology

by the israeli government, for the israeli government. and the evidence to defense have to sign off on every contract. when we look at the database of in good numbers, it's interesting that you have the explosion. i mean, the database run from 2016 to roughly middle of 2019. but all the indian numbers in the database get added from kind of july on good july went into some will be, makes it to israel, private private motive, the national security adviser who is in the us by chief, if you will. he visited israel, i think in march of 2017, 2017. when pegasus begins, i mean you see in the numbers in the database and it's clear that these really go to find off of this. but we have the so group saying that they are very concerned at the topic of job lists and they are going to look into this. at the same time, they say that we have no insight into how applied you are. why with i don't know how this can be reconciled,

but what i would tell him what i would tell there is any government and anybody else that we have physical evidence before me, a frenzy of jealous of human rights defenders office elliptical opposition personalities having been targeted with beckett's, the spyware. so how is this executable? how loop and acceptable use of energy technology, and any un under any arctic? ok, we must leave it the sit up, right, john, great talk you. this is a compelling conversation, i'm sure which will run and run for a few days. thank you so much. thank you. bye bye. still to come here on out to 0 for you. the pentagon, sounding the alarm off to the taliban, recent gains enough canister on while us forces finalize their with role. ah

hello there, it's a very wet picture of south asia. we've got the monsoons in full force across india . you can see that in the satellite image, it's not just the western coast has been inundated with rain and strong wind, but also more sensually, we could see some flash flooding in landslides, where those torrential rains continue to fall. and across the northeast, we are seeing those flooding rains, affect bangladesh and pushing into me and my we could see landslides and flooding. here as we go to saturday though it's going to be good. you're right. and my her roster that sees some of those heavier rains, we will keep an eye to see if those floods do kick in. and as we move across to east asia, we could see flooding across china's eastern coast. that's as high food, in fact, makes its way to the north of taiwan, which is really damaging wind and torrential rains. that's expected to move in land over the weekend. we've also got tropical depression chem packet and that's bringing a lot of wet and windy weather to southern areas of china as well as to indo china,

northern parts of vietnam are expected to be inundated with those very heavy rains . but up in the north, if a lot clearer and dry it with lots of heat for the korean peninsula. the, who's the welcome to do from every one of us. even those working quietly behind the scenes. so you can relax, enjoy a break in your journey. ah, and when you leave with a smile, we know our day's work is done. katara always welcome to our home. oh,

a welcome back. you're watching al jazeera, a reminder about top stories this half hour indonesia is now the epicenter of the latest wave of corona virus, in se, asia, it's reported more than $1400.00 deaths and $35000.00 cases in just one day. thailand and south korea have both reported a record number of new infections. the highly contagious delta variance is driving the search across the reach of the french president is called an urgent national security meeting to discuss the pegasus spyware scandal. it follows reports that emanuel mccomb, several government ministers, were targeted phone hacking by an, an identified moroccan security service. morocco has denied those reports. china is deployed as military to the province of the central region is struggling with the

west flooding there in recent memory. at least 33 people have not lost their lives . 800000 have been displaced. katrina, you is engine jang, in human province with a look of the crisis there. the rain has used, but millions of people are still struggling to deal with the devastating flooding, which is what many cities and towns dance. i'm showing a city on the northern hot non proven and 2 rental rain hit this region on wednesday, just passing the provincial capital of young joe in the space of just 2 hours. 26 centimeters of rain was dumped in this area. now, many houses in the rural areas, the northern outskirts of this region collapse. as a result of the torrential rain and half a 1000000 people will live, relocated to the areas. now we're just standing the beginning of the highway, which leads to the main area of downtown john. this area has been unable to rescue workers and teams have been moving to try to clear the area. and they're

also getting food and people who've been stuck in the cause our authority say $3000000.00 people have been affected by the severe storm and it's close to $100000000.00 worth of economic losses. now as the clean up continues, questions are being raised as to why people living in home. and we're not adequately warned about the severity of the storm before. but the government is choosing instead to focus on rescue. and it's sensory. any criticism of having a disaster online and on social media. and there's been more severe weather in other parts of china to a tornado rip through a village near bow dings city and northern have a province killing at least 2 people. it took through houses and scattered debris across nearby roads, relief workers, trying to restore power to that area. the pentagon today expressing alarm about the rapidly deteriorating security situation in afghanistan, the most senior us generals as the taliban now controls maybe half of the countries,

$400.00 plus districts. it coincides with the continued pullouts of us forces, fighting between african government forces and the taliban. intensifying at least 7 people were killed in the southern province of kandahar on wednesday. it happened during shelling between the military and taliban fighters. his more of what general mark milly had to say about the taliban advance. i would tell you that as of today, more or less, i guess it's about $212.00 to $13.00 in that range. 2 hundreds of the district centers are in taliban control. it's about half of the $41900.00 that are out there . you've got 34 provincial capitols in ghana stant. none of them have been seized as of today by the taliban. although the taliban is putting pressure on the outskirts of probably a half of them. 17 of them in fact. and what they're trying to do is isolate the major population centers. they're trying to do the same thing to cobble. and roughly speaking, the order of magnitude. a significant amount of territory has been seized over the

course of 6810 months sort of thing by the, by the taliban. so momentum appears to be strategic. momentum appears to be sort of with the tell him the afghan security forces that are consolidating their forces. thousands of people have rallied in ethiopia and capital to show their support for federal troops fighting in the northern region of 2 great speakers called on if the opens to be united against rebels into grey, the accused them of using child soldiers that comes as the conflicts has widened to include fighters from the neighboring m horror and afar regions. katherine saw you now from addis ababa these was very much a government running, organized by the man in id saba. but thousands of people's hand up at moscow square carrying placards that expressed their anger, a t guys, t p, a left leadership. and it forces that many here referred to as june car and support of prime minister abbey army government and its federal army has often anymore on

that for a long time. t p l. s. has brought division on the people to we have to begin to forget about them. forget about the past and be united behind and be united behind a defense force among us in the out is more on this government has a lot of moral support. they need to take strong action against the june to that steals those who address the crowd had this to say that dad. 6 down of here to national media, witness the june test using kiran for war. they witnessed this but, you know, reported, and that shows their interest shows who they are. above all, the intent is to support the june t as, as a c. p. federal troops have withdrawn from t cry, but the soldiers, retrans troop and special forces from neighboring i'm horror. region have been accused by rights, groups of committing crimes against civilians, including killings and rape. those who came to this rally say the boys support the government in the ongoing conflict. but the situation that is dire fighting is

still going on in some drawing in security forces from other reason that we're not previously involved in the fighting. and the un and other agency saying that they're struggling to get to the most vulnerable people in that region. there has been resent fighting between federal troops and regional forces from our amir, against a grand fight, as in areas bordering te gray and a far region. a world food program, a convoy was attacked on sunday on the only remaining ground humanitarian corridor into the guy. this is devastating to millions of people who desperately need help, shortages of fuel and cash as well as communications blackouts are significantly hindering the resumption of the humanitarian response and preventing and scale up. and jose, and you and agencies are running out of cash and are unable to pay staff or suppliers unless fuel cash supplies and aid workers are able to enter t gray. in the coming days. some humanitarian programs will not be able to function

on these are dangerous times in the field. and all white sites are trying to control the narrative. media access into tea guy is limited because of multiple national government and regional special forces checkpoints along the road and near space on the open for humanitarian flight catching. going all 0. this alba. ah, this is al jazeera, these are your top stories. indonesia is not the epicenter, the latest wave of corona virus, in se asia, as reported, more than 1400 deaths and 35000 cases and just one day. jessica washington reports now with the latest from jakarta, indonesia has now passed more than 3.